White on White: 4yo vs. 7yo

Well, finally grabbed a 200ml Jim Beam white 7yo today, so can compare the two white labels.
First, the differences:

4 has a some fresh corn husk in both the nose and palate, while it almost has disappeared by 7;

'refinement' -- there's quite a difference in the general flavor sense, with the 4 almost 'raw' (very little flavor till the finish, then almost exclusively corn), while the 7 is less like white dog and more like bourbon, with a progression across the tongue from entry to full flavor to finish;

both noses suggest cinnamon/Red Hots, but only the 7 manifests the flavors to any significance;

The 7 has a little finish, while the 4 is extremely short.

Similarities:

corniness and cinnamon in nose and flavor (though, as noted above, to reversed degrees);

almost identical color.

Neither offends, but the 4yo is so innocuous that it can't be intended for anything other than mixing and 'easy-drinking' patrons. The 7yo, on the other hand, is really quite simply enjoyable. Granted, it's not going to wow anyone's socks off, or win face-offs with the barrel-proofs, et al, but there's nothing there to put anyone off, either. I might just consider picking up a 750ml bottle as a household 'well' bourbon.

Now, as it happens, I have a third 80-proof Beam bourbon open -- a 4/5-quart from 1975 that is 180 months (15 years) old. This is lovely bourbon. All those years in wood have added the expected maple/caramel- and vanilla-like flavors, but it also presages today's corn-husk/cinnamon motif. I doubt that I would recognize it as Jim Beam today because of its richness, but tasted beside the others tonight, its relation to them seems apparent. You might be able to dilute today's Baker's, for example, to 80 proof and have something very like this.

What can I possibly say about the BOTM that hasn't been said elsewhere? I have both good and bad memories of JBW just like everyone but I find it a really strange coincidence that just this last week, someone in the office took a seemingly unclaimed bottle of Target generic brand mouthwash and used a sharpie to scrawl in large letters JIM BEAM while marking out all but one word on the label which was right between JIM and BEAM. That word was "antiseptic". Now some here in my new workplace know of my passion but I have never discussed JB with anyone here. So even the novices seem to have something to say about JBW that we "experts" might not want to dismiss.

As for drinking it, when I finished my nightly pour of JBW last night....

Excuse me for not going further, I have to run from those bolts of lightning, they're getting close.....

Well, I have reconfirmed my prior opinion that Beam is remarkable for being both thin and harsh. OK, I can tell it's bourbon, not absolutely worthless, and fine if you want a sweet drink.

Actually, I have some nostalgic fondness for Jim Beam; in grad school in the late '70s, if we couldn't afford the WT 101, it was a frequent substitute. Now that I have so many more candidates, I wish I could go back.

We've had some good responses but in the arresting phrase of the cultural critic Terry Teachout (offered in a context rather than different than the present), one might beware the "anaesthetizing power of an unexamined consensus".

Accordingly, I (for one) welcome assessments from palates I respect - which is all of them - and who thus far have remained silent. I appreciate that many people (me no less) are unwilling to buy a bottle they feel they may have no use for. But minis of Beam White are widely available.

Also, we have had no reports on the rare Beam White 7 years old version.

Jim Beam white and coffee is my morning tailgate drink. This weekend it was also my after game drink with a beer back. I found it served me well, not too bad, although I'd prefer Beam black. Not much of a review, but certainly drinkable.